Lady Kisaragi
by Vestergaard
Summary: [Oneshot] Eight years ago, the Lady of Wutai makes one last stand to protect the city against ShinRa's relentless assault and the ruthless strategy of General Sephiroth.


**"Lady Kisaragi"  
****a one-shot  
****by Great Materia Hunter Yuffie**

* * *

The Lady of Wutai knelt on the ground, surrounded by her loyal bodyguards and handmaidens. The sky was cloudy and the ground was moist. Her red hakama was already covered in thick brown mud. The ninja knew the enemy was marching from the north, an unspeakable change in tactics. There were no soldiers in northern Wutai to halt their attack. For years, the war had been fought in the south, on the mountains, on the key bridges scaling them. The only place the ShinRa boats had been able to land was the very southern tip, and the weapons company had never been able to cross all the way to the city of Wutai. 

Then, today. This day, they had landed in the north, airships dropping them like flies to spread across the land like a plague of locusts. They were almost to the capital; there was nothing to stop them.

Except for the Lady. Everyone in the capital, the few wounded soldiers, the sick, the elderly, the children, the women; they all followed her to the north to meet their fate.

The Lady stood up and wiped the wooden end of her naginata on the grass. She had long black hair, dark brown eyes and she held the weapon with both hands, with composure.

"Lady...!" came a voice, and she did not know whose it was.

Then the Lady saw the enemy, pouring over the green hills of Wutai. Thousands of men, guns in hand. Then she saw the SOLDIER classes in rank, brilliantly defined by their large swords and helmets. She saw no tanks following the army, and silently praised Leviathan for small favors.

In the open field, guerrilla tactics would be less than useless. The news had come too late for the Lady to choose to meet them on better ground. As it was, she held higher ground, her few warriors looking down at the seething morass of soldiers that had come to destroy their country.

She saw the front ranks shift. The enemy began to charge, blue uniforms blending with a sea of faces.

Slowly, gracefully, she lifted her naginata in the air, a symbol of femininity, sharp tip piercing the sky. Those around her cried for battle, lifting their weapons as well. And then all were suddenly screaming and the lines begin to shift and move. They ran.

Her hakama shifted around her legs, her slippers finding footing, only levering her naginata when she heard the crash of the lines merging, people flung into the air and spells cast, violently erupting over her people and theirs.

A blue-uniformed SOLDIER was deep in the Wutaian lines, his hair black and pointed and his expression at ease. She saw him for an instant, battling one of the few ninja left in the north, before she looked elsewhere.

Her guards protected the Lady and she ran in a sea of tranquility that broke through the fray. She saw her personal banner waving far away, a decoy in case the enemy was aiming for the Lady in particular. Scanning the enemy below, she saw no banners. She did not know who was leading the ferocious charge.

Suddenly, her protective circle broke with the strain of the sea of bodies, and men poured through. The women stood back, facing them sideways, their naginata pointed at the blue men like an ocean of shifting spikes. The first handmaiden screamed and lifted her naginata, then slid forward and swung down, slashing. One of the men fell, covered from chest to navel in blood. Then all were moving, the women hampered by the lack of space, lashing out with the blunt ends of their weapons. Some of the men were SOLDIERS, parrying the women with their round swords, and the Lady felt a great fear for them.

The Lady stood, protected by two ninja who were guarding her back. Her handmaidens were falling, slain by a gunman who could shoot through the barrier spell.

Lady Kisaragi held her naginata in one hand and clasped her bosom, holding the god of Wutai closely.

"Great God Leviathan!" she cried, and the water god rushed over the battle, killing many with its torrential ocean of water.

Some of her handmaidens and guards stood up, but much less than before. A horrifying number. Too many were left for dead on the muddy ground.

People were crashing all around them, screams and explosions, gunfire. One of her guards cast another barrier spell, and then a fire spell cast by one of her maidens engulfed two SOLDIERS who had been about to attack her. The Lady watched them as they cried out, and then swiftly impaled them with her weapon, silencing them and putting them out of their misery.

Then, the heart of the battle seemed to quicken. She could hear it vibrating in her bones, and knew that the worst was to come. She could hear a presence near, a larger attack about to commence.

A sea of blue ahead. There were no Wutaian soldiers between the Lady's motley group and the concentrated phalanx of SOLDIERS charging toward them. When they met, she called on Leviathan, but to many of the enemy went undamaged and cut the defenses to shreds. All of her protection, the two ninja, the bodyguards, the handmaidens, all of them were being cut down like trees. She began to fight personally, naginata sweeping to keep them at bay.

And suddenly, the helmeted blue figures parted, and a man stepped between them. It was as if she was looking at the other side of the coin. The enemy's great general, protected by a circle of First Class SOLDIERS, just as her loyal bodyguards had ringed her. Now the Lady knew who it was that was invading Wutai. The Great Sephiroth. The man who somehow knew all of their weaknesses, who knew the perfect strategies to lower Wutai in defeat, who was winning the battle and the war.

All over her bodyguards and handmaidens were dead now. She was now only ringed by the enemy, who wore helmets to hide their eyes. The Lady grasped her naginata in both hands, placing the sharp head between herself and the general.

He lifted his great katana and the battle began.

* * *

What can be said about the fear the Great Sephiroth instills in his enemies? It is an unforgiving and white, and it shocks and immobilizes.

Why is it so terrible to face him alone in battle?

It is not only that there is only the two of you, and that he desires your death. It is other things, many things together.

It is that he is tall and you are short. He is male, you are female.

He is dominant and strong, and you suddenly feel more submissive and weak than you ever remember being.

In physical comparison, you have always known you could never beat him, but you did not expect his grace, his lack of expression, and the fact that he did not yell or make any noise in the heat of battle. Your high-pitched cries echo strangely in the stillness, and you are breathing hard while he is not. He desires your death, and you know that he has the power to take your life from you. He is at the height of his power; you are thirty and have long been a mother. Although you have experienced many battles and are used to its ferocity, he is easily your better in this fight.

And in this battle, in the space between life and death, you learn how weak you truly are.

* * *

The Lady panted, chest heaving as she moved, always keeping her blade between them, facing him sideways to make herself a smaller target. 

She yelled and thrust forward; he stepped to the right as if he knew her thoughts, and swung to finish her. The Lady slapped his sword down to the side and brought the wooden end of the naginata to strike his chest.

Although she hit him, he did not seem to feel any pain. She frowned; already the battle had been going for some time, he looked the same as when they started.

Sephiroth attacked, a basic vertical slash that she slapped away. The Lady lifted her weapon, retreating a few feet before facing him again, dark eyes intent, trying to read his body for telltale movements.

He lifted his sword and curled it slowly to his right until it faced behind him. The Lady moved her grip, tensing.

He moved, slashing horizontally. She stepped back, lowering her hands so he would not cut her arms off. She felt the slight wind the blade made and the song it sang as it cut through the air, but paid no attention as she stepped forward, yelling and aiming for his foot. He, too, stepped back and used her momentary lack of balance to casually slice her arm open.

Lady Kisaragi screamed in pain, somehow managing to keep her hold on her weapon. Blood was sweeping down her arm, making her grip sticky. She felt sickfrom lack of blood.

Sephiroth politely allowed her to regain her composure. "I do not...enjoy this."

The Lady bit her lip, tears streaming down her face. She was aware of the blood and the pain and the staring, helmeted SOLDIERS ringing them to bear witness to any words they might speak. "Why? Because I am too weak to fight you?"

He shook his head. "You must die." He gestured with one black-gloved hand. "To demoralize your army. They will not surrender otherwise."

She was having trouble seeing him through the haze of blood-loss.

"If I do not kill you, it will be a massacre."

She felt the immobilizing fear grip her with its unforgiving, white talons.

* * *

Once the realization comes that you will die this day, you feel no peace, and desperation makes your strokes awkward.

No, the dreadful fear you feel is not only the fear of all creatures that must look death in the face. It is more.

You feel the fear of one who has no control.

You feel the fear that comes for love of a dying country.

You feel the fear of words left unsaid, of a half-finished life.

You have always feared violence. There is nothing gentle in the crash of bladed weapons and the inevitable weakening on your side. He is fighting to kill you.

You fear his face; when Sephiroth presses on your weakness there is no flash of triumph, no emotion. Worse of all of it, there is not interest there. He desires to take your precious, half-finished life from you, and there is nothing in his eyes to say it means _anything_ to him.

And then he violently disarms you, your naginata flashing end over end through the air before he gracefully impales you, sword sweeping through you in a bright white flash of pain. The last thing you see is his face. There is a slight smile there, but it is not malicious. It is a smile of accomplishment, of a child who has solved a slightly tricky problem.

And the worst part. Not the pain, not the violence, not death.

The thing you fear the most...is being separated from your husband and child.

My life...in exchange for...?

I did not say farewell to them...!

And death sweeps down to take you, binding you in the same cold iron that is buried in your flesh.

You fall to the ground; the sword is removed, but it has already killed you. Sephiroth wipes your blood and entrails from his beautiful sword, nothing about him to suggest what he feels, nor whether he cares at all about the tragedy of your passing.

* * *

MONSTER HUGE Author's Note. (Read only if you'd care to learn more about martial arts and why the Masamune and Sephiroth are both **crazy impossible**. Please, don't read it if you don't want to. It's just educational. You know...trying to make the fandom better and all.) (Read only if you'd care to learn more about martial arts and why the Masamune and Sephiroth are both . Please, don't read it if you don't want to. It's just educational. You know...trying to make the fandom better and all.) 

If you don't know, a naginata is like a six-foot long wooden pole with a knife/sword (that is curved slightly) on the end. +really bad description+ It's also called a glaive, I think, but that's more European and spear-like if I'm not mistaken. I _have_ taken one naginata class before, and it was pretty intense. The little Japanese ladies teaching it were very strict, but it was so much fun. It's easier to wield a naginata than a sword when you are a girl. Also, when fighting, the women will scream and yell to scare opponents and make their attacks more powerful because of the adrenalin rush that comes from yelling. The crazy, short Japanese ladies said that a girl could even take down a mounted Samurai if she was good at naginata, which was why women used them to protect their homes when the men were away. Therefore, it became more of a feminine weapon, because the men would usually use swords. I thought it was fitting that Lady Kisaragi would have that weapon in such circumstances. Plus, no other weapon would last long enough against a 7-foot sword to have a good fight. So yeah.

I've also taken a kendo class for like a year and a half, (which makes fighting scenes fun to do, because I kind of know a little about it) so I know what Seph is doing, too. Although...seriously, the Masamune is as impractical as the Buster Sword. I think Seph has to clip it on or something, because it would be **impossible** to sheathe. Like, he'd have to have the sheath in his hand and try to slide it in or something, but that would be really awkward, and he would probably cut himself if he wasn't looking XDXD. Anyway, it's hard enough to sheathe a regular sword without killing yourself, so he's definitely a brave kid. So, really, that's the reason why his sword just **magically disappears **between the time you are victory dancing and when it cuts to the scenes with his little pixilated self walking around. If he really walked around with it clipped at his waist (like the game makes you think he is), it would like...be **cutting** people. So, I guess they decided not to put it in unless he's chopping Midgar Zolom up...or killing dragons or Aeris or whatnot. It's also a hard weapon to visualize. I'm writing, and I say, "Oh, then Seph would do this kata..." but then, how would a seven-foot sword doing that certain kata NOT hit the ground? It's gafreaking **HUGE**! This makes writing it realistically a bit confusing. I guess it's just a game, anyway :P. "The bigger the sword, the better the character." Or so said my brother when we were watching Inuyasha one time.

I also am incredulous about the fanfictions that say he sheathes it along his back. This, my friends, is impossible. I remember some kid asking my instructor about how to sheathe a sword when the sheath is on a person's back. She said not to try it, because first you would cut your head off trying to sheathe/unsheathe it, and second that the Samurai would never treat their heirloom swords that disrespectfully. Plus, she said they only do that in cartoons and video games. XDXD It's also impossible because a sword that long would **trip** the Great Sephiroth if he sheathed it along his back. I mean, if it were at his side, at least it wouldn't trip him as much. It might work better if it was sheathed **diagonally**, but he still wouldn't be able to get it in or out, and he wouldn't have full use of his right arm when walking around, so that kind of defeats the purpose. Anyway, in the game he seems to put it at his side at the end of battle (when you're fighting with him in the flashback), so there's no real canonical evidence that he sheathes it along his back. Actually, he's holding it correctly, too. It looks upside-down, like a frowny face, but that's the right way, but it's not in a sheath, which confuses me. He probably just holds it there, all posing and stuff, until Cloud is done with his little "victory dance," then when you're picking up the gil and items, he sheathes it very carefully so he doesn't cut himself, then carries it in his right hand so when he's walking around he doesn't accidentally chop Tifa's legs off.

Zack: "Sephiroth, she was our _guide_!"  
Cloud: "And my childhood friend!"  
Seph: "...don't tell anyone, okay?"  
Tifa: (screaming in pain)

XDXD Just kidding. This is just a theory of what he does with it so no accidents happen.

And the random fact of the day? Sephiroth is left-handed, which is **also impossible**. In kendo, if you're left-handed, they **make** you learn it right-handed, with your right hand above the left, and footing placed accordingly. It was deemed unlucky in ancient Japan if you were left-handed, so there is no special left-handed version of kendo. So...yeah. Someone went to way too much trouble converting kendo into a left-handed version when they taught it to Sephiroth. They should've just made the baby learn to be more ambidextrous, in my opinion. XD

Woah, this is long. Dang. Well, it's a hobby. I love doing battle sequences. You have no idea. It's so much better than all that **talking** that happens in most fanfics. I swear, I can find no good action/battle sequences in fanfiction. Is it just me? If you know of a good action fic, tell meh please! Um...this fic will be incorporated later into "Soliloquy Symphony," my series of one-shots about minor characters' opinion of Sephiroth. It was big enough to stand on its own until the other story got caught up with Wutai, and I wanted some feedback from this one in particular. Thanks for reading!


End file.
